Kai Research

📌 One-Line Summary After Friday's steep KOSPI plunge of -5.72% , the market is expected to open in a cautious, wait-and-see mode, with technical rebound hopes on oversold conditions squaring off against US-Iran geopolitical risk and surging oil prices. Rather than the index itself, watch for sector rotation into geopolitical beneficiaries such as refiners and defense names. 🌙 Overnight Markets US markets closed mixed overnight. The Dow and S&P 500 posted marginal gains, while the Nasdaq slipped as profit-taking pressure on technology names persisted. Concerns over AI investment spending and rising rate pressure from the oil surge weighed negatively on high-valuation growth stocks. Index Close Change Dow Jones 51,947.25 +0.46% S&P 500 7,411.98 +0.05% Nasdaq 24,975.82 -0.64% The lack of clear direction in US indices makes it difficult to provide strong upside momentum for the Korean market. With the Dow edging higher while the growth-heavy Nasdaq declined, today's sessi...

📌 Next Week Outlook Summary With the U.S. FOMC decision and a wave of Big Tech earnings (Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet) all landing in a single week, the KOSPI is expected to face a heavyweight event window where another attempt to reclaim the 7,000 level ("7-cheon-pi") coexists with sharp two-way volatility. The coming week (July 27–31) hands Korean equities the busiest event calendar of the summer, as the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate decision and second-quarter results from global Big Tech names cluster into the same five sessions. After a prior week that swung by more than ±5% on single days, the key question is whether that extreme volatility persists or whether the market finally sets a direction as it digests these events. 📊 Last Week Market Summary Last week the KOSPI closed the week up +0.71% at the 6,690 level, but the internals told a roller-coaster story: daily moves of -4.46% → +3.56% → +0.74% → +4.40% → -5.72% . Intraday the in...

📊 This Week at a Glance This week (July 20–24), the Korean stock market delivered one of its most extreme roller-coaster sessions of the year, as semiconductor peak-out fears collided head-on with a Middle East-driven oil shock . Volatility was so severe that sidecars (program-trading circuit breakers) were triggered on five consecutive trading days . The KOSPI managed to defend a marginal weekly gain of +0.71% , but the KOSDAQ fell -3.23% , underperforming its larger peer. Intraday, the KOSPI swung between a low of 6,429.03 and a high of 7,166.00 — a span of roughly 737 points, or over 11%. Index Weekly Open Weekly Close Weekly High Weekly Low Weekly Change Weekly Volume KOSPI 6,643.58 6,690.62 7,166.00 6,429.03 +0.71% 190,572.7만 KOSDAQ 773.21 748.22 790.28 730.81 -3.23% 252,719.3만 The USD/KRW exchange rate closed at an elevated 1,459.42 (week-trading close basis), and came under further upward pressure late in the week as heightened Middle East geopolitical risk boosted safe-haven d...

📊 Today's Market at a Glance On July 24, 2026, Korean equities plunged as a Middle East-driven surge in crude oil prices and a sharp overnight sell-off in U.S. Big Tech and semiconductors triggered simultaneous sell-side sidecars on both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ . It was a textbook 'roller-coaster' session, giving back in a single day nearly all of the previous session's (7/23) rally that had been fueled by upbeat Alphabet earnings. Index Open High Low Close Change Volume KOSPI 7,000.78 7,000.78 6,650.41 6,728.97 -5.18% 30,657.9만 KOSDAQ 777.50 777.50 746.50 753.54 -4.65% 41,740.0만 The USD/KRW exchange rate held at an elevated 1,475.63 won , extending won weakness. With the day's high effectively equal to the open, sellers dominated from the very start of the session. 📈 KOSPI Analysis The KOSPI opened at 7,000.78 but widened its losses intraday, sliding to a low of 6,650.41 before closing at 6,728.97 — down -5.18% from the prior session. A wave of selling from the op...

📌 Company Overview SK Hynix (KRX: 000660) is one of the world's largest memory semiconductor manufacturers and a core subsidiary of South Korea's SK Group. Headquartered in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, and led by CEO Kwak Noh-jung, the company designs and produces DRAM and NAND flash memory. In recent years, SK Hynix has emerged as the global leader in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) , the specialized memory that powers AI accelerators, making it a central beneficiary of the ongoing AI infrastructure boom. It is the second-largest listed company on the Korea Exchange (KOSPI) by market capitalization. 📈 Current Stock Price As of the market close, SK Hynix presented the following snapshot (As of 2026-07-24 16:10 KST, market close) : Current Price: ₩1,759,000 Daily Change: -₩160,000 ( -8.34% ) — a sharp single-day plunge Volume: 4,935,571 shares 52-Week High: ₩2,987,000 52-Week Low: ₩245,000 The stock has fallen roughly 41% from its June peak of ₩2,987,000, reflecti...